Hello everyone,
    I am sort of a newbie at this stuff. I used sibelius before, but I have never used programs like VDL or VDL2 with it. I am pretty ignorant about putting the two programs together and how they are suppose to work together. Please bare with me if I ask completely asinine questions.

Let me give the low down on my system stats then I'll explain the issue.

I am running:
    Computer: Windows XP Media Center 2005 (all up-to-date), 2.2GHz AMD dual-core processor, 4GB of PC2-5300 ram, Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card
    Midi Keyboard: M-Audio O2
    Notation Program: Sibelius 4 (Educational Version) Updated to version 4.1.5 build 104
    VDL2 (of course) [I also went to the tapspace site and downloaded all the updates that were available for Windows]
    Virtual cable: Midi Yoke
    Settings:
      --Sibelius--
          Playback Devices: MIDI Yoke NT: 1 - Use is on and latency is at 39. The sound set is general MIDI
          Input Devices: USB Audio Device is highlighted and MIDI Thru box is checked
      --VD2--
      MIDI Input Interface-Midi Yoke NT:1-ON
      MIDI Output-all off

I believe that is all the info needed to get started. Here are my issues/questions:

1) I'll start by getting some of my dumb questions out of the way. In the kontakt VDL2 window, can I control the pan, tune, and other knobs with the MIDI keyboard or just the mouse?
2) When I am in the VDL2 window and press keys on the MIDI keyboard no sound is created. Is that suppose to happen?
3) Sound does play when I press keys on my MIDI keyboard when inputting into Sibelius, but when I did the setup and tried testing the sound nothing would play. Is that suppose to happen?


Now on to my other concerns.

1) Can I use VDL2 as a stand-alone program and as a program in conjunction with Sibelius? (Or for that matter kontakt player in general? [I would like to buy another MIDI keyboard to use my computer as a keyboard to practice on])
2) I did mention earlier that sound does play back when I input notes through my MIDI keyboard in Sibelius, but it is ";extremely"; quiet. Is there a way to raise the volume in the playback up so I do not have to turn the volume on my computer all the way up?
3) Can I add the VDL2 sounds to a score I already have?
4) (This may Qualify as a dumb question...) Is there a way to keep VDL2 sounds setup so that when I opened Sibelius I do not have to load the sounds into VDL2 everytime? Or the VDL2 program?

I know there are a lot of dumb questions, but I am trying to educate myself on how to do this type of stuff. I would greatly appreciate any help any can give me.

Thanks a bunch

Welcome drmnez! You've come to the right place for advice with VDL. I'll do my best to offer some quick suggestions. You might find responses a little quicker if you break each question into its own topic so it's not so overwhelming.

[i][size=8pt]1) In the kontakt VDL2 window, can I control the pan, tune, and other knobs with the MIDI keyboard or just the mouse?[/size][/i]
If your midi keyboard has controller knobs or dials, you can program them to control some of these.
[b]Volume[/b] is controller 7 (CC 7)
[b]Pan[/b] is controller 10 (CC 10)
As far as I know the ";Tune"; knob isn't controllable by automation, but you may want to check with NI to be sure.
The other knob CC assignments are found on page 28 of the VDL2 user guide.
[i]
[size=8pt]2) When I am in the VDL2 window and press keys on the MIDI keyboard no sound is created. Is that suppose to happen?[/size][/i]
You probably don't have your midi keyboard set as the input for VDL. If you just want to perform sounds via midi keyboard, set your input midi keyboard to ";ON"; in VDL's input interface. When you're working from Sibelius, be sure to turn this back off or you'll get sounds doubling.
[i]
[size=8pt]3) Sound does play when I press keys on my MIDI keyboard when inputting into Sibelius, but when I did the setup and tried testing the sound nothing would play. Is that suppose to happen?[/size][/i]
Depending on what sounds you have loaded, some may play, some may not. The ";TEST"; button in Sibelius mixer only gives you a test tone on Middle C of that channel. If that particular instrument doesn't have a sound  mapped to that note, you will not hear anything when you click ";test"; in the mixer. To truly test, set your device/channel in Sibelius mixer, then click that staff in your score (to activate it), then hit ";esc"; (so you don't enter any notes just yet), then tap around on various parts of midi keyboard. If your staff type corresponds to the instrument loaded in VDL, you'll hear those sounds.

[i][size=8pt]1) Can I use VDL2 as a stand-alone program and as a program in conjunction with Sibelius? (Or for that matter kontakt player in general? [I would like to buy another MIDI keyboard to use my computer as a keyboard to practice on])[/size][/i]
Of course. You don't have to just use VDL with a notation program. Just set its midi input to receive from your midi keyboard, and perform VDL sounds in real time.

[i][size=8pt]2) I did mention earlier that sound does play back when I input notes through my MIDI keyboard in Sibelius, but it is ";extremely"; quiet. Is there a way to raise the volume in the playback up so I do not have to turn the volume on my computer all the way up?[/size][/i]
Set instrument gain with the faders in the Sibelius Mixer. This is directly tied into CC 7 (mentioned above).

[i][size=8pt]3) Can I add the VDL2 sounds to a score I already have?[/size][/i]
Kind of. Pitched percussion like marimba, timpani, etc will play back just fine with VDL since these are just pitched instruments. NON-pitched instruments must conform to the mapping found in VDL, so if you didn't enter your old scores with this mapping (which surely you didn't), then you won't have much success until you re-enter those notes. You might try seeing what kind of luck you have using the ";AutoRL"; instruments since their mapping is a little more friendly in such cases, but results will probably still be limited w/o some re-inputting. Just the nature of using detailed sounds like this i'm afraid. There's no way for your old scores to intelligently know which sounds (midi pitches) to play back to trigger certain sounds.

[i][size=8pt]4) (This may Qualify as a dumb question...) Is there a way to keep VDL2 sounds setup so that when I opened Sibelius I do not have to load the sounds into VDL2 everytime? Or the VDL2 program?[/size][/i]
Not yet. Stay tuned for some updates in this department.